Rock Bunting

Rather large blackbird of tropical lowlands; male is much larger than female. Found in forest edges, pastures, orchards, and open grassy areas along rivers; often in small groups. In breeding season, hangs around oropendola colonies, where it lays its eggs in oropendola nests and relies on them to raise its offspring. Thick neck accentuates small head with very stout, pointed bill. Flight is strong and fairly direct, with distinctive flap-flap-flap-glide progression. Eye color varies: red in Mexico and Central America, yellowish in parts of South America.

A small, chunky, grayish hawk with a distinctive pale throat spliced by a vertical black throat stripe; has one or two (rarely) broad white bars across the black tail. Occurs in singles or pairs in savanna and is often seen perched in the open, watching for insects, lizards, snakes, and other small vertebrates. Calls a loud shrill “peeee-eeeuuu” or repeated “whuuua-whuuua-whuuaa”. It is shorter-legged and has a more powerful build than most sparrowhawks. Most similar to Gabar Goshawk, both having a broad white rump band in flight, but Lizard Buzzard is distinguished by its distinctive throat pattern, pale tail bands, and pale tail tips.

A small dark-brown shearwater with a white belly and a dusky patch under its wings along with dark markings on the inner wing visible during flight. A brown cap expands over the eye and runs down the back of the neck, blurring into the white chin and breast. Name is derived from distinctive low and fast “fluttering” flight with rapid bursts of wingbeats. Often seen feeding in flocks off the northern and eastern North Island and in the Cook Strait region. Easily confused with Hutton’s Shearwater where habitats overlap on the Cook Strait. Hutton’s is slightly larger with little white showing on the chin and more extensive gray armpit smudging. Little Shearwater also occurs in northern waters but is smaller, with white extending through or above the eye.